Cigarettes



March 26, 1957 K. w. GRAYBEAL 2,786,471

CIGARETTES Filed April 15, 1953 BY QZI 10K.

ATTORNEY United States Patent CIGARETTES Kenneth Wayne Graybeal, Johnson City, Tenn. Application April 13, 1953, Serial No. 348,366

9 Claims. (Cl. 131-'10) The present invention relates to smoking tobacco products, and more particularly, in a representative and preferred form of embodiment, to a cigarette having a filtering body incorporated therein.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a cigarette which will have the outward appearance of a conventional cigarette but which will nevertheless have concealed within it a short length of material effective to filter tars, nicotine, moisture, dust and other obiec'tionable substances from the smoke which is drawn through it.

A further object is to accomplish the foregoing purposes by means of a cigarette which will have the feel" of a conventional, filterless cigarette.

A related object is to provide. a smoke-filtering cigarette which will be in all respects save in the quality of the smoke produced indistinguishable from those cigarettes which are conventional and filterless so that its use will appeal to smokers who have grown accustomed to the conventional type and object to cigarettes provided with any of the filters of the prior art although preferring filtered smoke to unfiltered smoke.

Another object is to utilize an incombus'tiblesubstance as the filtering medium and to employ it in such quantity and in such proportion to the combustible tobacco fill that the cigarette will be automatically extinguished after it has been smoked to the extent that the average smoker uses a single cigarette.

A more specific object is to provide a cigarette having a filtering fill of relatively loose granules of 'aininer'al substance maintained in place in the wrapper between two separated fills of shredded tobacco, including a longer fill which is burned to produce smoke and a shorter fill which is held in the mouth of the smoker.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention are attained by using a filtering fill of loosely packed granules of expanded or exfoliated vermiculite disposed between fills of conventional tobacco, including a longer fill which is burned in the smoking or the cigarette and a shorter fill which is held in the smokers mouth.

A preferred form of embodiment of 'the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure l is a perspective view, on substantiallytfull scale, of a specimen cigarette embodying the principles of. the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a detailed longitudinal sectional view of the mouth-end portion of the; cigarette, on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectionalview taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

In these figures, the reference numeral 1 designates the entirety of a cigarette which is generally indistinguishable in size and shape from the conventional cigarette, whether of standard or king size. The illustrated cigarette is shown as round in cross-section, but the invention can just as well be incorporated in cigarettes of oval section.

The numeral 2 designates the paper wrapping, and this too may be of the usual material and appearance, with one exception hereinafter to be noted. The broken lines 3, 3 appearin in Fig. l are phantom or diagrammatic merely, being intended to indicate for the purposes of this disclosure the planes of demarcation between the tobacco and filtering body fills hereinafter to be described; they are not evident in the appearance of the cigarette itself.

Internally the cigarette includes a relatively long fill 4 of conventional shredded tobacco extending inwardly from one end of the cigarette and comprising the major portion of the length of the cigarette. This is the tobacco that is burned during smoking. From the opposite end of the cigarette, the end which is held in the smokers mouth during use, extends a tobacco fill 5 which may be like the fill 4 in all respects save length, being much shorter than the till 4. I prefer to make this shorter fill approximately three-eighths inch long.

In the space between the tobacco fills 4 and 5 is located the filtering body 6.. The length of this portion of the cigarette, comprising the space between the broken lines 3 of Fig. 1, or between the solid lines 70f Fig. 2 (these lines 7 being also merely diagrammatic like the lines 3), is preferably about one-half inch. The filtering body comprises a relatively loose pack of granules of expanded or exfoliated vermiculite, preferably of a size between minus 10 and plus 50 U. S. standard sieves.

Vermiculite is a well known article of commerce, being a micaceous mineral whose particles are made up of a large number of superposed thin flat laminae. When vermiculite is heated to appropriate temperatures the granules expand, with separation of the laminae into close but real spacing, so that the result is an exfoliated prodnet in which each granule has a large number of internal, more or less parallel surfaces comprising a very large total area. I have found that these surfaces have an aflinity for the tars, moisture and condensible distillates produced by the burning of tobacco, including the nicotine product, while the close spacing of adjacent laminae provides an excellent mechanical filter for tobacco dust and other finely divided solids that may be in the tobacco and which are obiectio'nable in the smoke.

l have estimated that a filterin body of loosely packed expanded vermiculite of the granule size above indicated, having'a "length of one-half inch and the conventional cigarette diameter of five s'ixteent'hs to three-cighths inch, has approximately forty-two square feet of surface area. This is vastly more than can be provided by any other filtering medium of which I am aware, and this relatively enormous area, in combination with the natural affinity of the vermiculite for the substances which it is desirable to precipitate from the smoke, probably accounts forthe excellence of this particular mineral medium as a tobacco smoke filter.

While the size range hereinabove suggested forth-e grantiles is not critical, and may be departed from ecusiderably, I have found that the recommended range gives very satisfactory performance. or course granule dust isto be avoided.

It will be recognized that the-shorter fill of tobacco '5 serves several purposes: It cooperates with the longer till 4 to new the tense body of vermiculite grannies-in place in the cigarette, and it gives to the smoker precisiy the same feel," when held in the mouth or engaged by the lips, as that to which he has become accustomed in smoking standard filterless cigarettes. Thus the present invention aifords all the benefits of unprecedentedly highly filtered smoke to persons who object to the feel and/or taste of filter substances in the mouth and who insist on the feel and taste-of tobacco in the cigarettes that they smoke. In this connection it is worth noting that vermiculite is entirely inert chemically to the smoke Since the cigarette constructed in accordance with the,

principles of the present invention exhibits tobacco at both its ends, and since it is the end containing the longer fill 4 that is to be ignited and burned, it is desirable to indicate a distinction between the longer and shorter tobacco ends. This is conveniently accomplished by coloring the wrapping 2, i. e., the enclosing paper, distinctively around the shorter fill 5, as is indicated by the stippling 8 in Fig. 1. This can be done by adding a band of paper or other sheet material colored differently from the paper 2 or, as is preferred, by simply inking or otherwise coloring the end zone of the paper 2. Of course any non-toxic, water-insoluble coloring can be used.

An incidental advantage of great importance in the use of vermiculite for the foregoing purpose resides in the fact that it is a completely non-flammable, incombustible mineral. Consequently the cigarette containing a vermiculite fill becomes self-extinguishing when the tobacco fill 4 has been entirely burned. If the several fills are made in substantially the above recommended lengths it will be found that the length of the tobacco fill 4 is no 'less than the length of cigarette that is burned by most smokers before the remaining butt is discarded. But in the present case that amount of tobacco consumption ends with automatic extinction of the fire, making it unnecessary to crush the cigarette or otherwise'act to arrest 1' .the burning. The efiect is obviously to makethe new cigarette far safer in use than any non-filtering cigarette or any cigarette provided with a combustible filter.

Unlike all other substances that, so far as I am aware, i

have been used or proposed to be used in the filtering of tobacco smoke, expanded vermiculite is extremely inexpensive, being much less costly per unit quantity than even the cheapest cigarette tobacco. It results that the total cost of the material in a filtering cigarette made according to the principles of the present invention is considerably less than the cost of the material in an alltobacco cigarette or in a cigarette having incorporated in it any of the prior art filtering substances.

While I have shown. and described the invention embodied in a cigarette,.itwill be recognized that the inventiveprinciples, broadly considered, may be incorporated in other smoking tobacco products, e. g., in cigars, pipes,

etc., and even in cigar and cigarette holders, wherever a length of granular expanded vermiculite can be aligned behind a length of tobacco to be burned, in such relationship that the smoke will be drawn through the vermiculite. The broader of the appended claims are to be construed accordingly.

It is to be understood that all the foregoing recommended specifications of granule size, lengths of the several fills, and other dimensions are given solely by way of exemplification and that they maybe varied considerably within the spirit of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A tobacco smoking product comprising a length of tobacco adapted to be burned to produce smoke, a length of filtering body comprising granules of expanded vermiculite adjacent to but separate from said length of tobacco and in line therewith so that smoke from the tobacco when burning will pass through the vermiculite, and a common wrapping enclosing the tobacco and vermiculite.-

2. A cigarette containing a length of tobacco and a filtering body of expanded vermiculite separate from but adjacent to said length of tobacco.

3. A cigarette containing a length of tobacco and a filtering body of loosely packed granules of expanded vermiculite separate from but adjacent to said length of tobacco.

4. A cigarette containing a length of tobacco and a filtering body of granules of expanded vermiculite of a size between approximately minus 10 to plus 50 U. S. standard sieves separate from but adjacent to said length of tobacco.

5. A cigarette comprising spaced portions of tobacco and a filtering body of expanded vermiculite filling the space between the tobacco portions, the filtering body being devoid of tobacco and each of the tobacco portions being devoid of vermiculite.

6. A cigarette comprising a relatively long fill of tobacco extending from one end, a relatively short fill of tobacco extending from the opposite end, and a filtering body of expanded vermiculite fully occupying the space between said tobacco fills, each of the tobacco fills being devoid of vermiculite and the filtering body being devoid of tobacco.

7. A cigarette comprising a relatively long fill of tobacco extending from one end, a much shorter fill of to bacco extending from the opposite end, and a filtering body of expanded vermiculite occupying the space between said tobacco fills and being about as long as the shorter tobacco fill, each of the tobacco fills being devoid of vermiculite and the filtering body being devoid of tobacco.

8. A cigarette comprising a relatively long fill of tobacco extending from one end, a relatively short fill of tobacco extending from the opposite end, and a filtering body of expanded vermiculite fully occupying the space between said tobacco fills, the external surface of the cigarette surrounding the shorter tobacco fill being colored distinctively from the rest of the externalsurface of the cigarette, each of the tobacco fills being devoid of vermiculite and the filtering body being devoid of tobacco.

9. A cigarette comprising an external paper wrapper, a relatively long fill of tobacco extending from one end of said wrapper, a relatively short fill of tobacco extending from the opposite end of said wrapper, and a filtering body of expanded vermiculite fully occupying the space between said tobacco fills, the portion of the wrapper surrounding the shorter tobacco fill being colored distinctively from the remainder of the wrapper, each of the tobacco fills'being devoid of vermiculite and the filtering body being devoid of tobacco.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 283,489 Hyatt Aug. 21, 1883 606,537 Goldenfarb June 28, 1898 1,898,774 Guthrie et al. Feb. 21, 1933 1,972,718 Sharlit Sept. 4, 1934 2,108,860 Kaufiman Feb. 22, 1938 2,327,991 Betts Aug. 31, 1943 2,342,574 Denning Feb. 22, 1944 2,547,119 Henderson Apr. 3, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 271,919 Austria Feb. 16, 1951 521,607 Great Britain May 27, 1940 

1. A TOBACCO SMOKING PRODUCT COMPRISING ALENGTH OF TOBACCO ADAPTED TO BE BURNED TO PRODUCE SMOKE, A LENGTH OF FILTERING BODY COMPRISING GRANULES OF EXPANDED VERMICULITE ADHACENT TO BUT SEPARATE FROM SAID LENGTH OF TOBACCO AND IN LINE THEREWITH SO THAT SMOKE FROM THE TOBACCO WHEN BURNING WILL PASS THROUGH T HE VERMICULITE, AND COMMON WRAPPING ENCLOSING THE TOBACCO AND VERMICULITE. 